Modern Times

CBS reported it has been more than 100 years, in the U.S., since two category-4 hurricanes have made landfall in the same year. Tearing through the Caribbean, Irma was upgraded to category 5! And, meanwhile, Hurricane Jose is coming strong in its wake, a third big hurricane (or tropical storm for hair-splitters?) to form within some two weeks of time in our part of the planet. According to USA Today, Hurricane Jose joined Irma in reaching 150 mph winds on Friday, the first time on record the Atlantic has seen two storms that intense at same time. Meanwhile a 4th, weaker (105-mph) hurricane named Katia (it has been rare so far to have three roaring at the same time) is taking aim at Mexico’s east coast right now.

With all this happening, who here still insists on denying climate change or, in other words, reality? Years ago, I explained the severe weather events from global warming (including strengthened blizzards in wintry regions on Earth) comparing our planet to a pot of water being brought to a boil (the turbulent boiling water being our atmosphere in the analogy). I have been around long enough to have personally experienced our climate change. The cold winters of my youth are gone where I grew up, and record low harvests are hitting the farmers there from way to many rains in the growing season, rotting grains and fruits. Back in my earlier years, no-one ever imagined melting ice caps on the poles and polar bears swimming to Canadian beaches seeking refuge. Climate change is real, folks; and among this weekend’s videos is plenty of evidence.

Some notable facts before the videos start:

Communication with Cuba and other Caribbean islands has been lost. Barbuda, the first island to feel the force of Hurricane Irma was devastated. Gaston Browne, prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, said 90% of buildings have been destroyed (the count may have risen to 95% by now), and 50% of the population of around 1,000 have been left homeless.

ABC’s West Palm Beach news announced that Irma’s 24-hour-long 185 mph winds are unprecedented in recorded history! According to ABC Action Weather, Irma would be classified as category 6 if 5 weren’t the highest number on our rating scale. Maybe climate change will soon force us to expand the scale? I heard of storm surges up to 20 feet in the Caribbean.

Another sad piece of related news: price gouging by some airlines asking people trying to get to safety thousands of dollars for inland flights. Likewise, I heard of $45 prices charged on water bottle packs.

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Hurricane Irma Is Stronger Than Katrina Was At Its Peak “)

Overall, Katrina killed 1,245–1,836 people, making it the deadliest United States hurricane since the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. It’s really sad that some right-wingers among our political crooks have been trying to rewrite history by spreading rumors that it was Obama, not Bush II and his war-profiteering and torture-promoting puppeteer Dick Cheney, who stood by idly as the catastrophe unfolded. Katrina also opened our eyes to how much our infrastructure, built during the New Deal, has been left to rot since our robber billionaires and our politicians and media pundits joined forces to focus exclusively on squeezing wealth from the middle and bottom to the top of the dungheap society we have become.

A bit more about our current storms:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Strongest Hurricane EVER RECORDED In Atlantic Heading Toward Puerto Rico And Florida”)

What a storm surge is and how it comes to be:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “What exactly is storm surge? “)

… and some more on our climate change catastrophes:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It “)

Montana is an example for the disastrous result of curring government spending in areas that protect and serve the people and our lands (while always maintaining and boosting the graft and pork spending such as military expenditures and corporate subsidies in connection with which we never hear a peep about budget deficits).

I have noticeably reduced the degree to which I watch The Young Turks (other than their associate Jimmy Dore, that is) ever since Cenk Uygur and others switched to supporting HRC in the 2016 presidential election — and after some underhanded smear attacks against citizen journalists — but I want to share this clip, largely because it rings true with me what these guys are saying about the reality perception and compassion of traditional “conservatives” (or GOP-voters) based on my own personal experience with many of them:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “The Trick To Being A Paid Liar: Zero Empathy “)

A little explanation of the greenhouse effect behind climate change:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s Simple Explanation of Climate Change “)

A little bit more explanation of climate change:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Climate change explained in under 2 minutes “)

If you want to listen to a pointy-headed scientist for nearly 20 minutes, here you can (For me it got really interesting 12 minutes in):

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Climate Change Explained and Proof it’s Man Made (Dr. Michael E. Mann 1 of 2) “)

And, I guess, I just learned that pointy hats are designed to hide balding. 😉

As a final word on the issue in this post, maybe I should remind everybody that I now offer an online science course which makes science super easy and fun and removes all excuses for science illiteracy and denial such as climate change denial even as hurricane after hurricane is hitting us in the face. And, besides, best of luck to everyone in the path of these storms!

And now to something completely different (a favorite Monty Python quote of mine):

Rummaging through useful news, info, and commentary clips I came across yet another TYT segment I’d like to share, because this is huge news, IMHOP, for the majority of Americans. You know, Equifax isn’t a company that you do business with. They get your data without your consent. With 143 million folks affected, most adult Americans may now soon be targeted with identity theft and the many horrible after-effects, as soon as the crooks can catch up with their enormous windfall. Expect to never qualify for a loan again, be blacklisted from employment and rental apartments, possibly for the rest of your life, and get arrested out of the blue for crimes you didn’t commit and know nothing about. I have long felt that our credit bureaus and collection agencies were a scourge on our country, and now they are about to prove it to everybody:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “UNPRECEDENTED Hack Leaks Financial Info Of 143 MILLION People “)

Hmm… on the other hand, maybe the wave of identity theft we may now experience may create a strong enough backlash to also give us a tool to fight the ongoing criminalization of political dissidents…? I wonder.

Support alternative media and citizen journalism.Help us any way you can (donate, recommend, contribute…). Maybe even help YOURSELF by signing up for my revolutionary online science course which makes science fun and easy-peasy:

Like this:

(Note: if the video linked above gets deleted, you may search the Internet for the title: “Lewis Black on Donald Trump and Election”)

… except for him dismissing Hillary’s criminal acts (example her arms deals and regime change acts). Maybe he’s getting old. Not sure. I haven’t watched him in years since The Daily Show lost traction.

Like this:

In a recent article, Umair Haque explained pretty well why the spreading attitude of me-me-me and to hell with society and the related phenomenon of splintering into tribes are so damaging for all of us, including for those who live this attitude. You may know people who need this explained to them. I sure do. Hence this article.

Salient Quotes:

“What’s a place where there’s no trust? A jungle. Maybe a prison. … Without trust, a society can’t be a society. It becomes something else entirely: a place where predators rule. … There must be some level of trust that binds people together, or else a society will almost inevitably decay into demagoguery, collapse, and ruin.”

“Americans can’t have what the rest of the rich world takes for granted: public healthcare, education, finance. They live profoundly crippled lives: precarious, anxious, afraid. They will never retire, can’t afford to educate their kids, and their incomes have been stagnant for decades. No wonder there is widespread rage.”

“First, trust is lost. Then, society loses the ability to function. Then, public goods are lost. Without public goods, people’s lives shatter. The rage that results from broken dreams produces demagoguery. Today’s gilded demagogue, then, isn’t the issue: the loss of trust is.”

Like this:

Quote: “Our competition and internal strife weaken us and prevent us from facing the universe’s tough challenges like disease; the ravages of aging and a short life-span; as well as natural disasters like earthquakes; tsunamis; pandemics; global climate change, with its ever increasing hurricanes; and giant meteorite impacts, such as the one that killed off the dinosaurs…”

Like this:

In sociology and economics, the precariat is a social class formed by people suffering from precarity, which is a condition of existence without predictability or security, affecting material or psychological welfare. Unlike the proletariat class of industrial workers in the 20th century who lacked their own means of production and hence sold their labour to live, members of the precariat are only partially involved in labour and must undertake extensive “unremunerated activities that are essential if they are to retain access to jobs and to decent earnings”. Specifically, it is the condition of lack of job security, including intermittent employment or underemployment and the resultant precarious existence.[1] The emergence of this class has been ascribed to the entrenchment of neoliberalcapitalism.[2][3]

I sure am a member of this growing social class. How about you?

Uhh… how… uhm… greatit is to live a precarious life in a rigged society! Isn’t it? Oh, and Merry Christmas to you… The guy whose birth many Christians celebrate this season sure would have praised us for our 21st century dung heap societies, wouldn’t he? So, let’s celebrate with a will… (Sorry for the sarcasm. Sometimes it’s needed to draw attention. Let’s enjoy the holidays if we can – any way we can – but not forget our outrage and the need to make change for the better.)

Like this:

There was a time when people remembered regimes like the Nazis and insisted on data privacy. Along came online services like user-information hungry search engines and social media making unimaginable billions out of their “free” service to the public. So, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that government spook galvanizations like the NSA aren’t the only ones who can make your skin crawl with what they find out about you and – in the case of the “free” online services – share with others (advertisers for profit and other users for convenience): other patients of your shrink or protected journalistic sources, for example.